


Burnt Coffee is... Fair

by Seer_of_Soul



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Love at First Sight, M/M, Slice of Clack, friends set friends up with friends, twice!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:20:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25372294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seer_of_Soul/pseuds/Seer_of_Soul
Summary: Cloud is sitting in a coffee shop, trying to work on his next story for Aerith's magazine when some doofus at the counter drops hot coffee all over himself.
Relationships: Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Comments: 8
Kudos: 84





	Burnt Coffee is... Fair

**Author's Note:**

> ~~(I hurt myself with the sheer bad punnage of my own title....)~~
> 
> Slice of Clack: Cliché – Love at First Sight (Coffee Shop AU)

The coffee was burnt, or at least it tasted burnt. Cloud drank it anyways. It wasn’t bad enough to get up and complain to one of the baristas at the counter all the way over on the other side of the room. And even though he’d tucked himself away in the corner booth, mostly hidden by a plant that was probably fake, he didn’t want to leave his laptop unattended, even for a moment. And packing it up would be even more effort…. So, he just drank the burnt tasting coffee, pretending it tasted fine.

He typed one handed, eyeing his half-started paragraph, then aggressively backspaced, sighing irritably. The next story he was supposed to submit was supposed to be done in a week and as much as he usually procrastinated, he was trying not to this time. 

Aerith had said, “Write something new this time! Expand your horizons and stretch yourself. Try a different genre!” She’d proposed that like his horror stories weren’t the most popular series in her magazine. Then she’d given him those eyes and he’d agreed, roping himself into actually doing it. How did he keep getting himself into these messes? It was totally Aerith’s fault, he decided. 

Cloud was almost at the point where he said ‘fuck it’ and wrote his usual shtick, already mentally preparing the ‘I really did try Aerith’ speech, when a loud yelp and clattering sound snapped his attention away. 

A young man, about Cloud’s age was swatting furiously at the legs of his pants, trying to wipe the hot coffee off before it burned him. Cloud saw a mane of dark hair bouncing around on the young man’s head, pulled into a wolfs tail, scruffy and bushy against his shoulders. His friend, who was mostly hidden under a grey-blue hoodie and baseball cap pulled low over his face, was hurriedly attacking his leg with a wad of napkins. 

Cloud hummed to himself, turning his attention back to his laptop. 

_Today, I saw someone so beautiful, I spilled hot coffee all over myself._

Cloud smiled to himself, the story already forming in his mind. A romance…? That was definitely outside his wheel house. Aerith once said that queer stories were more popular with her readers, so he started forming two male characters in his mind. He probably would have done that anyways, write what you know and all that. One of them looked like the dark-haired man, of course. But Cloud had the dark-haired man cast as the beautiful person in the story. He’d only seen a glimpse of him, but… well it just seemed appropriate. 

_Dark hair like coal, longer than his shoulders, and gods- what strong shoulders. He was strong, the kind you can just feel by looking at him. The color of his eyes, dark and deep, I couldn’t put a color to them, they seemed to shift in the light. He seemed to glow under the golden sunset, like a god who had decided to walk the earth._

_I saw him sitting there, across the diner, paying no attention to me. But for a moment, all I wanted was for him to turn and look at me. In that moment, I was completely entranced. I wanted it so much, I dropped the to-go coffee the waitress was handing me all over myself. I looked like a fool, I’m sure. And I prayed in that moment that he wouldn’t look at me._

Cloud pressed his lips together, feeling a little sheepish as he started describing the narrator character. He… ended up a lot like Cloud. And not just in his appearance…. Well, at least he knew Aerith wouldn’t judge him for it. And suddenly he was very glad he’d never had a photo published with his pseudonym for Aerith’s magazine. It was… fine, he decided. 

Cloud glanced up towards the counter again, hoping to maybe catch another glimpse of the dark-haired man, for more inspiration, but he didn’t see him or his friend. So, Cloud turned back to his typing. He finished a few paragraphs, then scrolled back to the top to obsessively go over the beginning again.

A shadow appeared in the corner of his vision, though it took him a moment to notice that someone had approached his table. He blinked, looking up and… Cloud felt his whole body freeze, taking on a deer in headlights look. The dark-haired man was standing over him. And… oh gods, he actually was really handsome. 

He had a shaky grin that was warm despite the air of nervousness around him. A cross shaped scar ran across one cheek, drawing attention to his jawline so nicely that Cloud couldn’t help but wonder if it had been on purpose. While mostly pulled back, parts of his hair hung loosely around, and in front of, his face. His eyes – oh gods his eyes – were a dark blue, so dark they almost looked purple, but so bright that they looked like they might be glowing. And… Cloud was definitely not wrong about assuming he was strong; he could see the outline of nearly every muscle that wasn’t covered by the loose shirt. 

The dark-haired man shifted his weight nervously. Cloud nearly flushed scarlet when he realized he’d been staring, not that the dark-haired man seemed to have noticed. He was rubbing the back of his head and trying to look anywhere but at Cloud. Cloud felt a blush, this time of a more anxious kind, spread across his cheeks. 

When the dark-haired man kept hesitating, Cloud mustered up his anxious spite to say, “Can I help you?” He was so grateful that he hadn’t snapped it. 

But the dark-haired man flinched like he had. “Uh- well, that is….” The dark-haired man stammered, a dark flush spreading across the bridge of his nose. “I just….” He made a sound that Cloud almost thought was a whimper, and looked to the side. 

Cloud caught sight of the friend in the hoodie and cap standing off to the side, one hand planted on his hip. He waved his other hand at the dark-haired man, in a sort of ‘go go’ motion. 

The dark-haired man took a deep breath. “Um, are you Cloud, by any chance…?”

Cloud nodded stiffly, automatically. He blinked up at the dark-haired man as he flushed even darker as he fumbled over his words. “I- I- Well, I am- I mean… I’m a friend of Aerith’s and she told me about you, and said that she thought we’d get along really well, and well, she showed me a picture of you, but it didn’t really do you justice- I mean- gods, you’re really cute, and-! She- she just said that if I ever saw you, I should give you this and-…!” He shoved his hand forward.

Cloud blinked, taking a minute to stare down at the napkin the dark-haired man was holding out towards him, at the string of numbers and hyphens written on it. What he’d said took a minute longer to process. Aerith had told this guy about him, showed him a picture even? He trusted Aerith and he trusted her judgement, but what the hell? 

Cloud glanced between the numbers on the napkin and the dark-haired man’s face. Slowly, like he was moving through honey, he reached up and took the napkin from the outstretched hand. The dark-haired man relaxed almost instantly, a relieved grin replacing his shaky one. 

“Ha…,” he sighed in relief. “H-hi…! I- I’m Zack….”

Cloud blinked, eyes going wide as the name clicked. “ _You’re_ Zack?” he gaped. Zack, who Aerith had dated once. Zack, who’d saved Aerith’s life that time. Zack, who was apparently good at everything. Zack, who Aerith never stopped gushing about, insisting that he was totally Cloud’s type. 

…Cloud knew there’d been a reason why he trusted Aerith’s judgement. 

Zack’s grin slid into something kind of sheepish. “Oh, geez, she’s told stories? That’s- should I be worried…?”

Cloud shook his head, folding up the napkin with the number and tucking it safely away into his pocket. “No, she’s… only had good things to say about you.”

“Well, she has a lot more than good things _to_ say,” Zack laughed softly, rubbing the back of his head. “But I’m glad she’s only _shared_ the good stuff.” 

“Yeah…,’ Cloud mumbled lamely, suddenly really hoping she’d done the same for him. Aerith could _wreck him_ if she wanted. She knew all his secrets. 

“Yeah,” Zack nodded in agreement. He hesitated a long, awkward moment. “So… coffee…?”

“Alright, this is painful,” the friend declared, throwing his hands up and walking over. “Hi, my name’s Kunsel, best friends to Sir. Doofus over here.” He leaned one arm against Zack’s shoulder and extended his hand. Cloud shook it on reflex. “Aerith said you were an author. Is that what you’re working on now?” 

Kunsel leaned down even further to take a peek at Cloud’s laptop screen, which Cloud only realized he was doing a moment too late. He flung his hands over the screen, feeling himself flush bright red. “It’s not done yet…,” he muttered weakly, praying that he hadn’t seen….

He had. Kunsel’s lips, which were about the only visible part of his face, curled into a ‘cat that ate the canary’ kind of smile. He had absolutely seen the paragraph describing the character based off Zack. Cloud felt like his soul was leaving his body. Kunsel chirped, “I see!” and guided Zack into the booth seat across from Cloud. “You wait here, I’ll go get us some replacement coffee. How do you take yours Cloud?”

“Um….”

“You know what, I’ll figure it out.” Kunsel waved over his shoulder, sauntering away. 

Cloud watched him leave and shyly turned back towards Zack, who was still kind of red himself. “So….”

“So…,” Zack responded. “…I think we got played man.”

Cloud’s laptop dinged at a notification for a new email popped up. Cloud looked purely on reflex, seeing that it was from Aerith. The subject line read:

_> Told you he was your type ;p_

Cloud felt the corners of his lips twitch upwards. “You know… I think you’re right, but… I don’t think I care.”

Zack grinned. “Don’t think I mind it either.” Cloud felt himself smile a little wider as Zack propped his elbows up on the table and set his chin in his hands. He could almost see a furry wolf tail waving through the air behind him. Now that was an idea….


End file.
